Fabrics are used on so many surfaces in most homes. In fact, fabric is one of the most important elements as you make your interior design plans. Fabrics even set the mood for a room and influence the way you feel.

The sheer number of fabric choices can be intimidating; that’s why it’s helpful to work with a professional.

Natural fabrics include cotton, leather, linen, silk, suede and wool, while synthetics include acetate, acrylic, microfiber, nylon, olefin, polyester, rayon and vinyl. Synthetics tend to be more durable than natural fibers, but not always. A lot depends on the finish applied to a fabric or the weave that’s used, as much as the inherent fabric itself.

The most obvious initial decisions are:

Fabric color family

Whether fabric is solid color or has a pattern

Fabric texture and weave

Whether fabric is woven, crocheted, knit or pressed

Select fabric first for beauty since the look of your home is paramount, but also consider how your fabric will be used so you’ll be happy with your decision over the long term. For example, fabrics that are optimal for a heavily-used great room sofa will be quite different than those for a seldom-used decorative chair in your entry. Always think about durability and stain resistance if you have pets or children. Also consider how much damaging sunlight enters a room.

Your fabric choices create the underpinning of your interior design plan and are critical to the beauty of your rooms. Consider fabrics carefully and get professional advice before you buy.

Black Out Shades or Room Darkening Shades are easily available and offer you great protection against glare into your rooms.

Let’s face it…we love bright sunny days but they often interfere with the large screen TV’s of today. The glare off of window panes reflect right onto the TV screens making them difficult to watch. Not a pleasant situation on the day of the big game.

There are various solutions.

1. Honeycomb shades can be made with a black-out liner that will block out everything.

2. Roller shades have made a huge comeback and come in a variety of fabrics, many of which are blackout. There is also a rail system that is black-out pictured at the top of the post.

3. Woven Woods, Roman Shades, all have the option of liners that darken completely.

4. Draperies come in a variety of fabrics and weights and can be lined with a black-out fabric. We recommend traverse rods with the heavier draperies for ease of drawing back and forth.

5. Duolite shades offer two shades on one system. Dual roller shades also allow two shades to be installed in one headrail.

Remember you do not always need to go completely black-out and room darkening may be enough. Layering treatments is an option. Use mini-blinds for privacy installed inside the window frame then add a drapery over for extra light control.

Mustard as an interior design color has a very similar role as mustard on a sandwich. Just a dollop adds a lot of flavor and pizazz, but too much can spoil the sandwich! If you don’t like the mental image of a sandwich condiment in your home décor, you can also call this vibrant hue goldenrod or egg yolk.

Mustard is a rich and warm color – and just a little bit daring! It goes well with black and white or with brown and white; and is very sophisticated when used with a gray and white color palette. Other accent colors that play well with mustard include deep reds, navy blue and lighter blue tones.

Because mustard is bold and dramatic, it’s best to use it in small quantities as an accent and not as a primary design color. It’s especially effective to use mustard in the kitchen to add brightness or in a powder room to add drama. Consider these design elements to get your mustard fix:

A piece of painted furniture or the fabric on an upholstered piece of furniture

A picture frame or artwork featuring mustard

Rugs and throw pillows

An accent wall

Window fashions and wall coverings

Linens on the dining room table, atop the bed or in the powder room

Lamps

Flowers and plants with mustard blooms

Even your front door!

Think outside the refrigerator this season and use mustard to space up your decor!

Draperies are making a comeback. People are hungry for textiles in their rooms. They add warmth, absorb sound, reduce drafts, and insulate large picture windows.

One main drawback with draperies is the stack-back of the fabric. Windows have gotten larger and wall space smaller. No one wants to hide the view or reduce the light that flows in from outdoors. We have to allow 30% for stack on standard white traverse rods. The stack is less on decorator rods because the drapery hangs underneath the rod allowing the crinolin to fold back instead of scrunching forward between the pleats.

Here is where this new product solves a major problem. These drapes stack in 10% of the rod.

Take a look at these photos of Vignette Vertical Traverse. Notice how small the stack is at each side of the window.

A great application for this product is sliding glass doors. On a 6′ slider we would install a 82″-84″ rod and it would clear the glass.

Come in and take a look at the samples today. Custom draperies take anywhere from 6-8 weeks but this product has a 3 week production time.

Neutrals can sometimes seem dull, but not when you layer on the texture.

A variety of textures can create interest and pizazz.
There are many more interior finishes that add texture to a room, especially when you layer the look. Think a soft rug atop a hard tile floor or fuzzy throw pillows over a smooth fabric sofa or a rough brick accent wall surrounded by shiny painted walls.

Draperies have been around for a long time. Some of most beautiful and regal treatments are pictured in colonial and European estates of the past and present.

There is something about a bank of flowing fabric that adds texture and warmth to a room. Something happened though with the invention of mini-blinds and verticals in the 60’s. Sleek and contemporary became the fashion. While these products offer much in the way of light control, much was lost in the way of insulation, beauty and lushness.

Another factor was the textile mills in America. Many of them shutdown and fabrics were for the most part exported doubling the price of case goods.

Many improvements have been made in the window shade industry. The fabrics now have texture and some the honeycomb like Architella do a fantastic job of insulation against heat and cold.

Yet….consider draperies for your room. They do take up more wall space. For instance, you need to stack the draperies onto the wall when they open so that the window can be totally exposed when they are drawn. They do not always have to completely expose the window but many times this is desirable.

The main cost of draperies is not the labor or the rod but the fabric itself. You can save a few dollars by purchasing fabric at a fabric stroe and bringing it to us for fabrication, but expect a bit more for labor. You will have to provide the fabric width, and pattern repeat to determine how many yards it will take to manufacture your draperies. Do not select a thin fabric more suitable for clothing. It will not drape well.

Another consideration for your custom drapery is fullness. You know what apartment draperies look like right?. Well, these are usually under double fullness. A JC Penny stock drapery is usually double-fullness although I have seen some really, really bad stock draperies lately.

I like to make your draperies at least 2 1/2 fullness. Sheers need to be at least triple fullness. This makes all the difference.

Draperies on a traverse rod or stationery panels can create much drama and beauty in your home. Colors, prints, banding on edges, interlining, all factors.

Go as wide as you can and if possible try the 90″ finished length instead of the standard 84″. The added height adds drama and customizes the look.

Come in today with your measurements and look through our sample books.

Luminette is one of the most beautiful window treatments on the market.

They draw open and closed just like a traditional drapery. But that is where tradition ends. The sheer fabric tilts just like a vertical. You get the best of both worlds. Drapery sheer elegance with light control.

Back in the 70’s I used to sell a lot of woven wood shades. They looked a bit different then because many of them were full of yarn. Hence the name “woven woods”. The yarns were woven through the wood reeds creating a material used most commonly for roman shades. Think golds, moss greens, and a bit of orange and the old memories will come flooding back.

This heavy look fell out of favor when the clean crisp look of mini-blinds and verticals came along. As with all things, the wovens have come back into fashion with new twist. Grasses and naturals are definitely IN right now and many of the new wovens have that ZEN look.

I never thought I would see the day when woven wood draperies would make a come back, but Hunter Douglas has brought them back into vogue. There are indeed improvements to the old look, which often involved clumsy wood pole rods and ungainly wood rings. Now the headrail is streamlined and easy to pull. Your drapery includes a valance.

Come in and look at our new sampling for woven wood shades and draperies. The vertical drapery is especially appealing for sliding glass doors when a standard drapery or vinyl vertical just doesn’t work with your decorating finesse.

Back in the 70’s draperies were the mainstay window treatment. We even put draperies in kitchen windows over the sink. Nowadays we have many more treatments to select from. Most are more practical and many are just plain beautiful.

When mini-blinds, roller shades and verticals became all the rage, the clean lines and easy care became the focus. Another reason this occurred was the fact that fabric prices began to skyrocket.

Two trends are re-emerging.

Draperies are making a comeback because people are hungry for fabric in their homes. Textiles add warmth, depth of color, texture, and luxury. The best attired rooms, come with a variety of pattern, tones, and texture to add interest and comfort.

Next, roller shades still rule. Classic clean lines, no fuss care, light control. Remember the days when the spring would let loose and the shade would go thwack, thwack, thwack in the middle of the night? Remember trying to get your shade to stop at a certain level in the window? No More. Roller shades now have completely updated lift systems which eliminate the spring AND you can stop the shade at any position in the window.

Hunter Douglas has come out with a new dual shade system. One fabric is sheer in varying degrees so you can lightly shade and the second fabric is opaque for privacy. The best of both worlds….and in one headrail, no less.

The new blind fabrics have totally new looks with texture, botanical prints and grassweaves. Awesome.